Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-05-02
DECAY OF MoRMoNIsM.


Correspondent.
Tspecaal Corrsupondsnce1 -
SAT- LAxr Crrr. u. r. 'April IA
Every DAVIS mail brinas somethin9 to All
tate the contendinr factions In this queer
plaee. and almost every day there il 4 new
faction. There Il. first. the ablood drinkerr
Gentle, who wants the government to come
down with heavy hand on all Mormons;
then the moderate Gentle, who wants
vsy slight pressure; the aJack Mormon"
who wants them left entirely alone, and the
much larger clau who know little about ths
istus and care less. 4 Among the Mormons are
IT, old hard headed fanatics, who "knoW this
work b Of God" and want to 60 ahead re-
gsrtiless Of congress, courts or the devil; the
tin1id, who are for yielding; according to .
convenient revelation they have on that sub
Jet, and the great mas, who have not sense
enough TO know good from evil in govern
ment, and do just d their local bishop tells
them And most impoftAhtf Of al are the
@Hlc1Dgiesp-the young MornionG, mostly
slfepticS, and they are the class that win prove
the death Of the institution. So diversified
are our people that the late acts Of congress
AID the courts bet every tongue TO wagging in
q different tone; Jew, Gentle, saint and
sinner Official and Hickory each Is ardent
in his particular faith, and the Cruel Of street
conversation is 1thick and slab" with partisan
hate
OF course do not intend to give your
readers history and analysis of Mormonism
lit h . Chestnut" All aim at is to COR
rect few errors now common in the States.
The first and greatest Is the notion that the
Mormon church Is growing. In fact. IL has
BEEN slowly tiecayino for thirty wears: but
the decay Is Z sort OF dry rot. not the result
OF outbreak or schism. Americans get the idea
that the thing is growing from tho fact that
all the Nlornons OF the world Il mean
the orthodox Brighanists) have concentrated
in and near Utah, Once there were 40 900
Mormons In the British Isles--now not 200
In Scandinavia tho churcl, Il about extinct
Italy. France and Germany once held few
thousand: now there is no Mormon church In
them. From the first revelation to the last
conference only ten Irishmen- have Joined this
church, ana some Of them came to Utahl by
way Of Van Dieman's Land. The heads Of
the church here still claim 1000 or more
Converts In the Sandwich Islands. and they
occasionally exhibit new arrival from there
In the tabernacle stand, and have him tes-
tify in choice Kanaka about the growth of
the saints at his home; but I guess the
supply Is. about exhausted there. / once
heard Brigham Young say that of all
who had ever joined the church s. per cent
had apostatized; but ] now know his estimate
was too low. Ninety-five per cent would
come nearer to it. Not long before Prophet
Joe Smiths death he published an estimate Of
his church, placing the total Of adult COM
p,unicants at 100000. The world does not
contain half 80 many now. OF the It's, 900
people, more or less. in Utah, at least 10000
are Gentiles, $1,000 "Hickories" and 10000
tpo young to know what they believe about
divine things. Indeed, very surprising
percentage OF the adults do not know enough
to start a theological academy in the brush.
The other error is in regard to the
young men and women reared in the
Mormon church; they are with scarce
" an exception infdels / personally
know hundreds of them, and do not know
one who really believes the doctrine In fact
Icannot just now recall one Mormon family
Of note, from Brigham Young to John d.
Lee. which has producei ope davont Nor
mon ING r,oSt u.a -; 60,
- T..h -, ~ sa ~ w, p "n.. avi mons
IN o'an are .iie scions Oh the rratts, euhRs
md other patriarchs OF polygamy. Old Nor
mons die, young ones grow up infdels; there
can be but one result-cxtinction by dry
decay. Thousands Of these Young folks call
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